Eclipse
by FireTaiga
Summary: An eclipse only lasts a few minutes, but true love lasts a lifetime.-Zutara


My second revision. Hopefully this one turns out better than the original. Only 1000 words. Shameful.

There were only four days in the year when they were allowed to be together. Only four days when they didn't have to hide behind the sun and moon. Four days when the sun and the moon hid behind one another without trying to take over.

For the sun and moon had once been lovers. Torn from one another by the great spirits around them. They were not created to be in love. They were created to be opposites, never together. The sun and moon were set in a rotation they could not break. Only four times in the year did the rotations cross and the moon and sun eclipse one another. When the spirits saw that they could not prevent the love of the sun and the moon, they made them give up their powers four times a year when they were together.

As it was with them. They had been in love for years. They had travelled the world together with the Avatar. They'd defeated his sister together. Nothing had ever torn them from one another. She saved him from death, he saved her from herself. Not until they became political figureheads, forced to travel in a set rotation for weeks at a time. No freedom, only a schedule that had to be followed. Except for four days in the year when they could escape.

No one knew where the Fire Lord and Southern Ambassador went every eclipse. It was assumed that they were on Avatar business. The Avatar rarely called his old friends from their new lives, but it was not unheard of. As far as he was concerned they had all moved on and frown apart. If anyone had bothered to ask the Avatar then they would have known. The Avatar had not seen his former lover and firebending master in many years.

In reality, the two leaders would go to Ember Island, to the Fire Lord's home on the beach. The home had been repaired and cleaned but remained empty. The Fire Lord insisted that this had to be the way things were. The Fire Lord would arrive the morning of an eclipse and prepare for his love. No servants were allowed to help with this task. No bodyguards were allowed to stay. No one knew why. She would leave for her destination at dawn, using the moon's energy to help her depart as quickly as possible. Her students would wait. Papers would stick on her desk unsigned. No one knew why.

The lovers would be together come nightfall. It was the same ceremony. She would arrive, and he would tell her she looked beautiful. Her musical laughter would fill the hall. He would cut her off with a kiss.

Deep and passionate. The kiss held all of the love that had been suppressed since the last eclipse. His hands would cup her face and kiss her with all he was. She would wrap her arms around his neck and pull him close, letting her blue fur-lined cloak fall to the floor. They would pull apart minutes later only to whisper in the same moment.

"I love you."

A romantic meal eaten in the courtyard, the sun beginning to set and moon beginning to rise. Candles lit for him, set in bowls of water for her. Soft bread and fresh fruit with seasoned wines and cheeses. They would feed each other, giggling and smiling, unable to tear their eyes away. A hint of their childhood together was seen in the playful splashing in the fountain and blowing out the candles.

The meal would end when she stood. It always did. She would walk to the hall, slowly dropping her formal dress to reveal her shoulders and the shorter, blue, strapless dress underneath. A demur glance over her shoulder would tell him she was ready. She would drop her ornate dress further to reveal the large tattoo she had gotten for him. Flames licking their way up her spine, originating in the small of her back. The flames devoured her left shoulder and travelled down her arm to her elbow and wrapped the limb in a loving embrace.

He would stand and follow her, dropping his hair ornamentation and his own robe. His own tattoo would glare out in the moonlight. A swirl of water twisting between the rises in his spine and up his shoulders and upper arms in a twist of currents and tides. When they stood next to each other, the flames and water would connect at their arms, seeming to explode in fury.

Fire and water would meet in his room on the bed. He would cover her with his body, both quickly baring their bodies to the other. Her hands would run over his perfect body, his over her feminine curves. They created love, his patient thrusting met with her deep groans. Sweet release granted them both a moment of pure ecstasy held in each other's arms. The passion of the act would cause the candles in the room to flare and the water to ripple in joy.

They would hold each other for a few moments, unwilling to let go. They would sit and breathe together in perfect harmony, calm and happy. His internal fire would spark with one look at her body underneath him though, resistance the last thing on their minds. He would enter her again, the patience replaced with carnal need. Her fingernails would drag across his back, leaving red trails across the blue river. Unable to restrain himself, he would take her rosy nipple in his mouth, bathing it with his tongue.

A more violent release was always the last thing they knew before it was time. They would rise together, wrapping a blanket around their naked bodies. Outside in the courtyard, they would look up. The eclipse would darken the night. The fire and water inside them both would meet in a hard clash. She would gasp in surprise and the sudden heat. He would sigh from the unknown cold. They were finally one. Their bending would be gone if only for a moment, their powers suppressed as the sun and the moon were hidden. It was what they had agreed to.

The moon would reveal itself seconds later and the moment would be gone. The lovers would return to the bedroom and love one another for the last few hours they had together. Sunrise was their imminent separation.

Clothed in their formal attire, the smell of sex washed away, they would kiss one last time. Slow and mournful, filled with sorrow at the thought of leaving. She would depart first, back to her little boat and the duties at hand. He would leave later after removing all traces of her existence from his home. The only thing keeping either of them alive the thought of the other somewhere in the world. The thought that another eclipse was three long months away and they would be together again.

An eclipse only last a few moments. True love lasts a lifetime.


End file.
